Ogallala Cemetery

The Ogallala Cemetery was developed in early 1886, the first burials occurring in February of that year. In approximately 1890, remains were transferred from the "Boot Hill" Cemetery (located on a hill at that time above the city of Ogallala). Many of the homesteaders didn't want their children or other loved ones buried next to the outlaws and drifters that populated "Boot Hill".

A listing was recovered by Emil Elmhauser, an Ogallala Historian, who salvaged it from the back of a pickup following a fire at the Keith County Courthouse. The list shows burials from February 1886 through August 1902, and is labeled as "RESUME OF DEATHS AND BURIALS, AS RECORDED BY C.C. ARROWSMITH - UNDERTAKER AT OGALLALA, NEBRASKA.

The list shows causes of death ranging from "Exhaustion after intermittent fever", "broken neck in runaway", "Consumption", "Murder", and "Typhoid Fever".